Kickin’ It With Taylor

I had a great time at the Rookie Symposium in San Diego last week.  We stayed at the La Costa Resort and Spa, which was absolutely amazing!  Unfortunately I was unable to enjoy much of the beautiful weather there because we were inside all day with meetings and listening to speakers.  Most of the speakers were NFL and former NFL players including Chris Carter and Jerry Rice.  I learned a lot about what to expect at this level and how to handle it. 

From San Diego, I flew into Minneapolis to see my girlfriend for the 4th of July.  Her family has a lake cabin in northern Minnesota on Crosslake.  It was nice to just lay around and relax for a few days.  I’m now back in Madison, Wisconsin where I still have my apartment to move out of.  I’m going to work out here for a week or so and get treatment on my leg.  My leg is starting to feel much better.  I’m slowing trying to build the strength back in it. 

Right now I’m planning on making my way back to Aberdeen sometime this weekend.  It will be nice to see my family and friends for a few days before I head back down to New Orleans to begin fall camp.   Tomorrow morning I’m playing in Wisconsin head coach Bret Bielema’s golf outing.  It should be a blast! 

I’ve been in LA the last couple days with the intention of working out with my kicking coach.  Unfortunately, I strained a muscle in my kicking leg on Wednesday while I was preparing for this weekend.  I wanted to get some good film of myself kicking before I left to come out here. I kicked some field goals and then moved onto kickoffs.  On my second kickoff, I felt something bad in my left quad.  I knew instantly it wasn’t good.  This is a minor setback, but I’ll overcome it and get right back on track.  The most important thing for me right now is to get this healthy for camp.  We report for camp in Jackson, Mississippi on July 22nd.  I’ve been getting good treatment on it and I really think I’ll be ready to go sooner than later.  I think one problem I have is that I always want to do too much and tend to over-do-it sometimes.  We’ve been doing a ton of running and conditioning lately on top of all of our lifting.  I’ve also been kicking on my own every couple days.  I think my legs were just worn out and that this was my body’s way of telling me I need a break!

The trip out here to LA wasn’t a total loss.  Nacho and I were able to watch and break down all my kicks from this months mini camps.  I definately still took something away from this weekend and was able to just relax!

Tomorrow morning I have a short little flight down to San Diego for the Rookie Symposium.  The schedule is filled with meetings and lectures of what to expect in the NFL.  This 3 day orientation ends on Wednesday, and then I’ll get a chance to go back to Wisconsin for a couple weeks.  Living out of my suitcase is starting to get alittle old.  I’m looking forward to spending some time with my girlfriend at her family’s lake cabin in northern Minnesota for the 4th of July.  I’m also planning on coming home to Aberdeen for a weekend to spend some time with my family and friends.

On Wednesday we flew up to Canton, Ohio to check out the pro football Hall of Fame.  What an experience that was!  Basically, it’s a museum of the history of football dating back to the late 1800’s. The NFL made it mandatory this year for all the incoming rookies to go and learn about the history of the game. They had everything from the first padded sweaters that were used as shoulder pads, to the uniform that Adrian Peterson wore last year while breaking records on his way to the Rookie of the Year title.  One of the best parts of the trip was meeting Jim Brown who is one of the greatest running backs of all-time.  He spoke to our group of teams that were present.  The four teams that took part in the tour that day were the NY Giants, Houston Texans, Cleveland Browns, and New Orleans Saints.  My next favorite part of the trip was seeing all of the Super Bowl rings.  Those rings were absolutely amazing, especially the rings from the last 10 years or so!  They were huge.  The majority of them had between 150 and 200 diamonds on each ring.  It would be alot fun to get one of those someday!

We’re now in our last week of summer workouts before we meet back up for training camp on July 22nd in Jackson, Mississippi.  We’re working very hard and I like where I’m at with my kicking.  Every year I continue to improve and I think I’ll be stronger than I ever have this year.  On Thursday, I’m flying out to LA to work with my kicking coach for a few days.  Chris Sailer and Nacho Brache have helped me with my kicking every year since my Junior year of high school.  If you’ve seen the movie Invincible with Mark Walberg, Nacho is the kicker in that movie. I owe them alot of credit not only for helping me improve as a kicker, but for letting me know early on that I had the potential to kick at this level if I worked extremely hard at it.  Then from LA, I have a quick little flight to San Diego for the Annual Rookie Symposium.  It is mandatory for all of the drafted rookies to attend this 3 day Orientation.  That’s all for now…enjoy the weather up there! I’ve heard it’s finally nice!

Everything’s going well down here. Right now we have lifting and conditioning workouts early in the morning and then meetings in the afternoon. We’ve had a Finance professor from Tulane University come to speak to us for the past couple days.  He’s here to inform everyone of all the different investment options that people should be taking advantage of.  The NFL Players Association has a number of great benefits and he wants everyone to be well aware of it.  Last summer I did an internship with Merrill Lynch, so I have a pretty good understanding of most of the things he’s talking about.  We’ve also had meetings about dealing with the media as well as had a speaker come in to talk about our credit and what we can do to protect it.

I helped out with head coach Sean Payton’s football camp on Saturday. It’s fun to help and interact with all the kids down here because they look up to so much if you’re a member of the Saints. Today, I helped out with a sports camp that my uncle David Mehlhaff is helping run down here.  It is intended for inner city kids who really have nothing to do during the day.  This camp gets them off the streets in the afternoon and doing something constructive.  It is something to see!  Yesterday, a fight broke out between a couple of 10 year olds because the one wouldn’t let the other play first base during whiffle ball.  Throughout the afternoon they play a number of different games and teach them a couple different Bible verses to try to install alittle faith in their lives.  The kids seemed to have alot of fun today.  I spoke to the kids about working hard in everything they do and that nothing will ever be handed to them whether it be in school or in athletics.  Hopefully I made a difference in at least one of their lives!

The dozen or so of us rookies are leaving early tomorrow morning for Canton, Ohio to see the NFL Hall of Fame. The intention of the trip is to educate all the Rookies on the history of the game and what some of the first pioneers of the game went through. I’m sure we’ll walk away from there with a better understanding of what we’re getting ourselves into and how lucky we are to be apart of it.  I’ll let you know how it went…

We’re now in our last week of Organized Team Activities.  Everyday we’re at the football facility by 6:30am.  There is breakfast available before the 7:30am team meeting.  After the team meeting all of the players have position meetings for an hour and a half before practice starts.  This is where being a kicker or punter has its advantages.  We go into the weight room and get our workout done before practice so that we’re basically free to go when practice is over.  The practices are fairly long, so I do a lot of talking and standing around.  I’ve actually been throwing balls for the wide receivers during their individual drills.  That keeps me busy for about 15 minutes.  When practice is over, we have a quick video review from our days kicking, grab some lunch, and head back to the hotel.  We’ve been getting a lot of pool time in!  It’s been 90 degrees and sunny everyday I’ve been here other than a couple of days when it has rained.  It’s also very humid.  It took some time to get accustomed to the humidity during the first couple days of conditioning.

Our facilities here are very nice.  We have two Bermuda grass practice fields side-by-side as well as a full sized indoor football field.  In Wisconsin, we used our indoor field to get away from the snow.  Here, you use the indoor field to get away from heat and sun!  The lockerroom, training and equipment rooms, as well as the coaches offices and film rooms are all next door in a separate building.  I’ve been to a few different NFL facilities, and ours is probably the nicest.  This has also made me realize how well we had it at Wisconsin.  We were takin care of really well there and had top notch facilities there too!  A few days ago, a group of people came to get everyone passports who needed them.  Our game against the San Diego Chargers @ the end of October will be played in the famous Wembley Stadium in London, England this season.  Every year the NFL holds one game over seas in an attempt to gain more recognition worldwide for the league.  Last year, the game was played there between the New York Giants and the Miami Dolphins.  There were 65,000 tickets sold in the first 90 minutes for the game this year.  Reggie Bush and Ladainian Tomlinson are heading over to London in July to further promote the game.  Well that’s all for now…check back next week.  They have a lot of things planned for us Rookies including a trip to Canton, Ohio to check out the Football Hall of Fame and a trip to San Diego for the Annual Rookie Symposium at the end of the month. 

 Take care

Hey everyone,

I’ll be doing a blog here throughout the summer for anyone who is interested in seeing what my experience as a rookie kicker in the NFL is like.  I was back at home in Aberdeen for the draft weekend at the end of April when I found out I would be heading down to New Orleans to compete for the kicking spot for the Saints. I was drafted early in the 6th round and brought in to compete with Martin Gramatica.  We had our  Rookie Mini Camp the first week in May.  I flew down here for a few days to take part it in it, but had to fly right back up to Madison, WI to finish my finals and take part in the graduation ceremony.  Immediately following graduation, I flew back down to New Orleans to take part in our first series of Organized Team Activities.  They run Monday through Thursday and consist of one practice a day as well as a strength and conditioning program.  Everything’s going really well.  All of the Rookies are living in a hotel right across from the Airport during this month.  We had our first “open to the public” practice on Saturday.  It was pretty cool to see how excited all the fans are down here for the Saints.  After Hurricane Katrina, the Saints are what everyone in this city have held onto.  This team is kind of their pride and joy!  Last night, about a dozen of us players took part in Deuce McCallister’s “Catch 22 Dinner” for his foundation.  Nearly $150,000 was raised and all proceeds go towards feeding starving children.  I learned this is something I would love to be able to do someday as a way to give back in a foundation of my own.  Again, I met a number of people who are so excited about the players and this upcoming NFL season.  I don’t know if it has completly set in that I’m apart of this football team yet.  I’ve been blessed with a unbelievable opportunity here and I’m going to do absolutely everything I can to take advantage of it.  Every week you see players get cut, and new players come in.  Dick Vermeil, who was my head coach at the All-Star game this January told us, “a job in the National Football league is very fragile, treat it with great respect!” 

If anyone has any questions, please respond.   Thanks